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I came across this bush plant for the second time, this time in Johor Bahru, and I find myself marvelling again at how beautiful it is. I don’t know what it’s called, and how it gets its shape, but I love it. It makes me think of a well-coiffed hairdo.

I like how it falls and drapes the sides of the steps. If the steps are tiled nicely instead of just this concrete screed, in something like terracotta for example, it would look gorgeous.

I first noticed it in January, taking a stroll along Keppel Bay.

Interesting to see a bald patch, revealing how there’s just a thin layer of its tiny green leaves on the surface

I visited someone at SGH when I heard she was hospitalised there. I had not seen her for some time and I wish we had met again in better circumstances. And there were other people around, family and friends, so conversation was a bit awkward. But it was nice to see her again and see she’s doing okay for now, so I’m glad I went, even though I hung around only for half an hour.

Then before I left the hospital I thought I’d look for the foodcourt to grab lunch, and came across this pretty courtyard garden. It was lovely just sitting there with my coffee after lunch, doing nothing but watch the people walk past and listen to myself breathing, reminding myself yet again to be consciously aware of the good health I had at that moment and be grateful for it. Who knows what tomorrow will bring? I guess there are other gardens in other blocks of the huge SGH complex, but I didn’t have time to run around exploring.

Sweet little green walls. They remind me of the massive panel I had seen at Raffles Place and featured in a post here.

I just discovered another name for these vertical garden things, something I first saw some years ago, and fell in love with at first sight because they are so incredibly beautiful. And it’s such a brillant idea, allowing leafy nature to be part of modern design layouts in urban dwellings. Even in tight spaces, like on a balcony wall of a flat. Unfortunately I don’t have even that (a balcony), but I so would at the first opportunity.

It’s an American invention, I discovered at Wikipedia. An interesting snippet:

While Patrick Blanc is sometimes credited as having developed the concept in the late 1980s, the actual inventor is Stanley Hart White, a Professor of Landscape Architecture who patented a green wall system in 1938.

I was at Raffles Place last week and saw a massive installation at one of the buildings right beside the MRT station, and decided to take some photos.

^ I was fleetingly admiring the greenery on the wall on the left when big shiny balls caught my eye. I was drawn to them.

^ That was when I realised the green wall was a two-panel installation. Huge.

^ I didn’t realise at first that it was designed like a world map, but when I did it made me go ‘Wow!‘.

Can you imagine the maintenance?! The effort and equipment needed so that it stays nicely trimmed. I’m visualising scaffoldings and stuff. And it has to be at night or during the weekends because that area is crowded during office hours, as it’s not just in the central business district but right next to an MRT station.

^ As for the panel on the other side, it features a map of Singapore! How sweet.

^ This Paul pastry shop place looks posh, but a quick glance at their offerings at the takeaway counter shows their prices are not exorbitant. I was surprised because shop rental anywhere in Singapore is crazy-high and a location like that must be heart-attack inducing. But the prices seemed okay. For example I think I saw decently-sized chocolate eclairs at about S$6. I think I also saw crème brûlée; I forget what the price was but I remember thinking it was pretty reasonable. Next time maybe. There were queues both at the takeaway counter and to sit inside, and I had to run.

^ Going back to take a photo of this sculpture below the ‘world map’ green wall. So very pretty.

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